CleanShot X vs Loom Comparison 2026
CleanShot X is a $29 one-time purchase for Mac screenshots and quick recordings, annotated, tidied and exported without a round trip through an editor; it keeps working forever even if you skip the optional $19-a-year update renewal. Loom is a subscription built around video correspondence: record your screen and face, get a shareable link the moment you stop, and let viewers reply on a timestamp. Loom's free Starter plan caps video length and how many you keep; Business is $18 a member a month. Both listings independently draw the same line: CleanShot is for what gets looked at, Loom is for what gets watched.
Mac screen capture that replaces the built-in
Screen recordings that go out as a link
At a glance
- Loom starts cheaper, at $18.
- Only Loom has a free tier.
Side by side
CleanShot X | Loom | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $29 | From $18 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | One-time purchase | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing (they differ) | One-time purchase | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated |
CleanShot X
Mac screen capture that replaces the built-in
CleanShot X is the tool Mac users buy once and then cannot work without: scrolling captures, an annotation layer, a cursor you can hide, and a desktop it tidies before the shot. Recordings export as GIF or MP4 without a round trip through an editor. It is macOS only, and the cloud sharing that competes with Loom is a separate subscription.
Our note
Buy the $29 licence and ignore the cloud tier unless you are sharing captures with a team every day. Loom is the better answer for anything that needs to be watched rather than looked at.
Only on this side
- Covers design & graphics
Loom
Screen recordings that go out as a link
Loom records your screen and your face together and hands you a link the moment you stop, so the thing you would have written three paragraphs about arrives as a two minute video instead. Viewers can reply on a timestamp rather than describing where they got confused. Editing is trimming and little else, so a cut that needs more than that belongs somewhere else.
Why people weigh these two
- Loom instead of CleanShot X
- Loom is the recordings-as-a-link product CleanShot's optional cloud add-on competes with, free tier included and paid from $18.
- CleanShot X instead of Loom
- CleanShot X is a one-time $29 purchase for Mac that replaces the built-in screenshot tool, for someone who wants ownership rather than a subscription.
Which one should you pick
Choose CleanShot X for fast, frequent screenshots on a Mac, scrolling captures, desktop tidying, arrows and blur applied without opening a separate editor. It costs $29 once, not a subscription, and its own cloud sharing tier at $8 a user a month is worth adding only if a team is sharing captures daily.
Choose Loom for the video you would otherwise have written three paragraphs about: a client walkthrough, feedback on a draft, an update the team watches later. Starter is free with capped length; Business at $18 a member a month lifts that and adds viewer engagement data. It is built for correspondence, not for publishing content, and editing is trimming and little else.
Common questions
- Which one is a one-time purchase?
- CleanShot X: $29 once, including a year of updates, and it keeps working after that year whether or not you renew for $19. Loom is a subscription, free to start with capped video length, then $18 a member a month on Business.
- Which one is built for screenshots rather than video?
- CleanShot X is: scrolling captures, desktop tidying and an annotation layer, with GIF and MP4 recording as a secondary feature. Loom is built around recording and sharing video as the whole product.
- Does either one require a Mac?
- CleanShot X does: its listing states macOS only, with no Windows or Linux version. Loom's listing does not state which platforms it supports.
- Which one shows who watched a recording and how far they got?
- Loom does, on its Business plan and above. CleanShot X's listing does not describe viewer analytics; it is a capture tool rather than a hosting platform.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.